


Welcome Back

by DianaandAlicia



Series: Post Good Out Here [4]
Category: Fear the Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Grief/Mourning, Hallucinations, Mother-Daughter Relationship, Sharing a Bed, Sibling talks, only at the end though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-23
Updated: 2018-05-23
Packaged: 2019-05-13 03:07:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14740880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DianaandAlicia/pseuds/DianaandAlicia
Summary: Alicia wakes up in the middle of the night to the feeling that someone is staring at her.





	Welcome Back

**Author's Note:**

> MeteoraAngel was and always will be my beta for this series. Thank you so much Sam! Your help means the world to me. 
> 
> For the sake of a timeline, this story is set about two nights after the events of the last story.

Alicia woke up in the middle of the night to the feeling that someone was staring at her. She turned on her bedside lamp that still worked and felt lucky that the farm house that they found had solar panels and working electricity. She looked around the room after the light was on and her eyes fell to the rocking chair in the corner by the window. The chair had a visitor sitting in it. 

After taking a minute to fully wake up, Alicia's heart nearly stopped when she saw who the visitor was. 

Nick. 

"Nicky?" She asked in a whisper, not believing that what she was seeing was true. 

"Hey Ali." Was all he said, and that childhood nickname was enough for tears to flood into Alicia's eyes. She threw the covers back and crossed the room, sitting at Nick's feet. 

"I missed you so much. You left." Alicia whimpered, looking up to her older brother. 

"I know. And I'm so sorry for leaving you Princess. I didn't want to but it was my time." 

"But you're back now! And you get to stay because you didn't turn!" 

"Now Alicia, you know it doesn't work like that. I'm only visiting to see how you're doing. I can't stay." 

"But Nicky...." 

"Alicia you know I can't stay. I wish I could, but I've got a new place now. And I'll watch over you from there." 

"Are you alone?" 

"No. I have Troy, Chris, Travis, Gloria, Ofelia, Jake, and members of the militia and ranch to keep me company. You know who else is there?" 

"Who?" 

"Dad. He's been waiting and watching out for us. Now I get to help him watch out for you." 

"Daddy? He's there too?" 

"Yep. Daddy's there too. He wanted me to tell you that he misses you and he loves you." 

"Can you tell him that I love him too?" 

"You know I will." 

"What's it like up there?" Alicia asked before getting cut off. 

"Alicia what are you doing out of bed?" Althea asked, able to hear Alicia talking from her bedroom. 

"Al look! Nicky's back!" Alicia cheered, pointing at the chair while looking at Al. 

Althea then realized how serious the situation was because the rocking chair was empty. Alicia was hallucinating her brother.  

When Alicia saw Althea's confused and concerned look, she turned back around towards the chair and her heart fell when she saw that Nick was gone. 

"Nicky?" Alicia whimpered, tears starting to fall. She started to cry and she turned back to Al. 

"He's gone." Was all she said, looking at Al with such a sad expression.  

"Oh Alicia...." Was all Al could really say. She didn't know how to handle this. 

"He left without saying goodbye." Alicia practically whispered, looking dejected. 

Before Althea could respond, though she honestly didn't know how she could, Alicia held her arms out to the older woman, a signal that she wanted a hug. Al went over to Alicia and picked her up, before sitting on the rocking chair with her.  

Because Alicia was still staying in her room most of the day, she didn't really eat. Someone would bring her food three times a day but usually she only a couple bites of each meal, picking at the food that she didn't eat. Because she wasn’t eating as much as the others, she started to lose weight and Al was already a strong person before the apocalypse, so picking Alicia up and holding her on her lap wasn't a difficult task in the slightest. 

The two sat and rocked, not really saying anything. 

"Do you think I'm crazy Al?" 

"No. I believe that you saw your brother. Just because I didn't see him doesn't mean that he wasn't there." Al explained, being supportive. She knew that Alicia's grief was manifesting in different ways and she wasn't going to call her crazy for grieving. 

Al was wondering what caused this to happen now though. It's been a little over three months since Nick passed away and this is the first time to her knowledge, that Alicia has hallucinated him.  

She looked at Alicia and could tell the girl was thinking the same thing. 

"It was the flowers, wasn't it?" Alicia asked, and then all of a sudden, everything started making sense. 

A couple days prior Strand and Al took Alicia on a walk to get her out in the fresh air. On the way back to the house, Alicia saw a patch of Bluebonnets in the yard and she proceeded to rip them up and rid the yard of the flower. Bluebonnets were Nick's flower and Alicia couldn't stand the sight of them. They made her feel worse than she already was feeling.  

"The flowers must have triggered a response inside of you further than your immediate reaction." Althea said, only giving a guess since she wasn't a doctor. 

"I know he wasn't really there. But I still saw him." 

"I know darling. And as long as you keep Nick in your memories and love him with all your heart, he'll always be with you. And I believe that he's looking out for you. He loved you very much." 

"Al?" 

"Hmm?" 

"Can you maybe not tell the others about this? Can we keep it between you and me?" 

"Sure. If that's what you want." 

The two rocked for a while, until Al saw that Alicia's eyelids were starting to droop, and the girl was having a tough time staying awake. 

"Alicia, I think it's time we got you tucked back into bed, don't you think?" 

"I don't wanna be alone. Can you stay with me? Like sleep in the bed with me?" 

"Your bed isn't big enough to hold the two of us comfortably. Would you like to come to my room? That way we can fit in the bed together." 

Alicia nodded so Al lifted her off her lap and took Alicia by the hand to her bedroom, making a pitstop by her bed to grab Nick's flannel shirt. The shirt was Alicia's comfort object now, basically a baby blanket. 

The two crossed the hall and went into Al's room, and the older woman tucked Alicia into bed. She got next to Alicia and the younger girl snuggled up close to her, feeling safe. Al pressed a kiss to Alicia's forehead and it wasn't long before both girls fell asleep. 

**Author's Note:**

> This story wasn't originally planned for the series but it was one I had to write because it's based on a real life experience. Not gonna lie, Nick's death fucked me up and for a little over a week after the episode aired, I had frequent nightmares and even hallucinated Frank being in my room on one of those nights. I wanted to do something where Alicia experiences the some of the same things.
> 
> If you ship Alicia and Althea, this series is not for you. They will never get together romantically or sexually in this series, and Alicia sees Althea as more of a mother/big sister type, and Althea sees Alicia as a daughter/younger sister type. I will go into this further in two days when I post the next story in the series. It'll make more sense then, I promise.
> 
> Also, Alicia's diet habits and weight loss will be discussed more in a different story, which will probably begin posting next week maybe.
> 
> Thanks for reading! I hope y'all liked it!


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